Gaming hardware company Razer is getting ready to launch its second smartphone and if the latest leak is to be believed it looks… a lot like the company’s first smartphone.
Razer launched its first smartphone almost a year ago, after acquiring phone maker Nextbit earlier in 2017. The original Razer Phone looked a lot like a Nextbit Robin on the outside, but under the hood it had flagship-level specs and a few features that helped justify Razer’s decision to call it a gaming phone, including a big battery and a display with a 120 Hz refresh rate.
Now the Razer Phone 2 is on the way and, according to an image released by Evan Blass, it looks pretty similar. But there are two cameras on the back of the phone instead of one, and the logo lights up.
Earlier this month Roland Quandt had indicated that the Razer Phone 2 would have some sort of the company’s “Chroma” LED lighting effects, allowing the phone to light up when notifications are received.
Now Blass has confirmed that the Razer logo on the back of the phone can light up.
Quandt also says the phone will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, but there’s no word on the price or other specifications yet.
The new picture does seem to show a phone with stereo front-facing speakers in the top and bottom bezels, just like those found in last year’s model. Razer doesn’t seem to be ready to jump on the bezel-free/notch bandwagon.
There’s also a USB Type-C port on the bottom of the phone an no sign of a headphone jack.
The reasons I didn’t buy the Mk.I (most annoying to least):
– Price (quite expensive)
– No IP68 water resistance
– Bad screen quality (low brightness, extreme battery drain)
– Bad camera quality (And here I thought the Essential Phone and OnePlus 5t were bad)
– Poor design choices (small buttons, thick bezels, sharp corners, horrid ergonomics)
– No 3.5mm headset jack/aux port (also no QuadDAC for USB)
– No attachable “JoyCons” inside the box
– Very weak construction/durability (only marginally better than the Nexbit Robit)
– No AndroidOne support for fast and long-term software support
– The Snapdragon 835 was nearing the end of its lifetime, a bad sign for a “Gaming Phone”
– The fingerprint reader isn’t as accurate or fast, and I don’t like the position that much
– The rear-logo doesn’t have RGB like their other products
I’ll reserve judgement on the Mk II for later, but so far it seems they didn’t fix the Top 4 dealbreakers. Nor the Middle 4 drawbacks. It seems they merely upgraded the chipset to a QSD 845 (which isn’t much faster anyway), and updated the software (which isn’t much different anyway), and made a few design changes. I’ll bet they would be asking for the same sales price too. Overall, it doesn’t seem like a Good Value, or even simply a Good Phone. See the Poco F1 for value, and see the ASUS RoG Phone for good phone… this is neither, and is not in the middle (based on what we can infer).
Ugh. No headphone jack, no microSD. Disappointing. At least there’s no notch, I guess.
Better that it’s gonna be a functional kind of “ugly” than a trendy yet imitated beauty.
If I were to buy it I only care about if they manage to pack a bigger battery.
After all, there’s screen on time to burn with the refresh rate no?
Let’s hope it fares better than Essential Phone 2, which was cancelled before launch.